They mention that after Moses had spoke with God in the holy valley and
after His commandment in His saying: Go thou unto Pharaoh! Lo! he hath
transgressed (the bounds)(TaHa:24), he went along with his family and his
cattles to Egypt and he got into it at night time and had a residence in
the house of his mother and brother and the rest of his family, and seems
that his father was dead at that time, and we've mentioned before that
his brother Aaron went to him for reception on the bank of the Nile by
an inspiration from God to Aaron, and then he took residence in the house
of his family and he had the great happiness for meeting them after such
a long period of time, especially towards his purified mother, and he told
them about his matter and whatever he faced of troubles until he reached
Midian and about his residence with Jethro and so on, and he told his brother
Aaron that he is his partner in the message and he is a prophet and appointed
to tell the message and take on its adversities and take the leadership
by a commandment of God, so Aaron had nothing but to accept it and obey
God's commandment, then they went to tell the message and go to the pharaoh,
and they had nothing in their thoughts but to do what God commanded with.
It is said that they got into the court of the pharaoh just by requesting
that. In a speech attributed to Al-Sâdiq (PUH) that he said: when
God sent Moses as a prophet to the pharaoh, he came to his door and asked
to meet him but he did not give a permission, so he (Moses) stroke the
door with his stick and all open doors were closed and then he got into
the court of the pharaoh and told him that he is a prophet from God and
asked him to send with him the Israelites, so then the pharaoh said to
him: Did we not rear thee among us as a child? And thou didst dwell many
years of thy life among us, And thou didst that thy deed which thou didst,
and thou wast one of the ingrates(Al-Shu`arâ':18-19), meaning that
you killed a man from us so you were ingrateful to my care for you, and
then Moses said: Even though I show thee something plain?(Al-Shu`arâ':30),
then the pharaoh said: Produce it then, if thou art of the truthful!(Al-Shu`arâ':31),
Then he flung down his staff and it became a serpent manifest(Al-Shu`arâ':32),
and so then everyone escaped and fled away and terror got into the pharaoh
and he could not hold hisself and then said: O Moses, by God I ask you
to keep it away from me, and so he did, and then he got his hands out and
it was so white, and it is said that when Moses took his stick away from
the pharaoh, he was about to believe in Moses but Haman said to him: you
were a god and worshipped and now you are a servant for a servant, stop
him and do not allow him to do his deeds, so then the tyrants of the pharaoh's
followers said: he is only a magician with a great knowledge and want to
banish you away from your lands so what are you going to do? They said
then: Put him off (a while) - him and his brother - and send into the cities
summoners, To bring each knowing wizard unto thee(Al-A`râf:111-112).
They said that the pharaoh and Haman were the best wizards, and they
conquered people by the magic, and the pharaoh claimed hisself as a god
by magic, and as for Haman he was a slave for the pharaoh, as it is mentioned
in Safeenat Al-Bihâr for Al-Muhaddiþ Al-Qummi, but because
of his loyality to the pharaoh and because he did not believe in a thing
except in life and to make people as slaves, he was then transformed from
being just an advisor to someone that shares everything in his matters,
and what we understand about this man, Haman, that he was an intelligent
man and a devil by himself and also a hypocrite and has no religion and
does not worship anything, and when the pharaoh was about to believe in
Moses, Haman started to keep him away from this, thus the pharaoh was closer
to the faith rather than Haman was and for this when he was about to sink
he said: I believed in what the Israelites believed in, but that was of
no benefit to him, so Haman is the one that used to manage the matters
of the pharaoh, and he built for him the tower when he (the pharaoh) ordered
him to do so: and set up for me a lofty tower in order that I may survey
the god of Moses(Al-Qasas:38), and they say that when Moses told the pharaoh
what he was sent for and to send with him the Israelites, he (the pharaoh)
made this as a favour for him to the Israelites and Moses, and the speech
of Moses to the pharaoh was a speech of passion and easiness with patience
applying God's commandment to him and his brother in God's saying: And
speak unto him a gentle word, that peradventure he may heed or fear(TaHa:44),
and also God said in the chapter of Al-A`râf: Moses said: O Pharaoh!
Lo! I am a messenger from the Lord of the Worlds, Approved upon condition
that I speak concerning Allah nothing but the truth. I come unto you (lords
of Egypt) with a clear proof from your Lord. So let the Children of Israel
go with me(Al-A`râf:104-105), and in the chapter of Al-Shu`arâ'
the same meaning is mentioned.
Some people claimed that such speech is in fact as to mock at the pharaoh
by Moses as for Moses he was powerful by God and by whatever God gave him
of miracles, and his power is not humiliated by the claims of the pharaoh
or his numerous solders or even his luxurious marches, but this is just
an imagination of the one claimed such thing, and it is a gentle word for
the benefit of the others and it is for what God wanted in God's saying:
And speak unto him a gentle word, that peradventure he may heed or fear(TaHa:44),
and this commandment to make his heart incline toward releasing the Israelites,
because he had enslaved them and treated them worse than anyone else, thus
as if Moses was sent for them only and to release them and stop humiliating
them and let them work with the religion of their fathers Abraham and Ishmael
and Isaac and Jacob (PUT), as it is understood from the results of their
story after passing through the sea and the death of the pharaoh at the
end.
It is said that the pharaoh was a cow-worshipper and he ordered the
people to worship it and the narrator of such tidings takes the clue from
the deed of As-Samiri (The Samarian) who made the calf for the Israelites
for they were used to it, thus it is said that for the hardness and harshness
of the pharaoh and his tyranny, he is not faced with mocking as some said,
but he was faced with the gentle words for God's saying: And speak unto
him a gentle word, that peradventure he may heed or fear(TaHa:44), or else
he might be faced with destruction.
Then the pharaoh, after the message of Moses and the seducation of
Haman, started to gather the wizards to stand against Moses, and gathered
them from all the cities and they were one thousand wizards, and he chose
the best eighty of them and they said to the pharaoh: you knew that no
one is more skillful than us in magic, so if we defeated Moses what is
our reward? He said to them: you will share the kingdom with me, they then
said to him: and if Moses defeated us and broke our magic then we would
know that what he showed was not magic but it is a miracle from God to
prove his claims and so we must believe in him. Then said the pharaoh:
if Moses defeated you, I shall believe in him as well.
As attrbiuted to Ibn-`Abbâs he said: when the pharaoh said the
power of God in the stick and the hand (of Moses) he said: we will not
defeat Moses unless by facing him with someone like him, so he took some
children from the Israelites and sent them to a village called Al-`Armâ'
where magic is taught for children and they learned lot of magic and the
pharaoh had an appointed with Moses in a certain day, and he called the
wizards so they came with their teachers, and then the pharaoh said to
them: how did you do? They said: we taught them magic that no one on earth
could bear unless if it was a commandment from heaven then they cannot
bear it, so then the pharaoh gathered all the wizards and they were seventy
two men, and Ka`b Al-Ahbâr said they were twelve thousand, and some
said they were around thirty thousand, and `Ikrimah said seventy thousand,
and some said eighty thousand and he (the pharaoh) chose seventy thousand
of them and then from those seventy thousand he picked seven hundred, and
they say that chiefs of the wizards were brothers from the town of Al-Sofr
(and it is an area at the far end of Egypt and only God knows) and when
the messanger of the pharaoh came they said to their father: the king called
for us because two men arrived in his court without men or weapons but
have the power and the king is annoyed because of them, and they had a
stick that when thrown nothing would stand in its face and swallows the
iron and the woods and the stones, so their father answered: look to them
when they sleep, and if you can, steal it from them, because the magic
of a wizard would not work while he's sleeping, and if you could not do
it while they are sleeping then this is something of God's commandment
and you have no power for this nor anyone else would, and so they did and
tried to steal it while they were sleeping but when it felt them, it chased
them and they fled away scared, and they had an appointment with him at
the day of the feast [Arabic: day of the feast = Yawm Al-Zeenah] and it
was a day for the market for them (the Egyptians).
It is mentioned from Ibn-`Abbâs that it was at the day of `Âshurâ'
[the tenth day of Muharram, the first month in lunar calendar, and the
same day for the massacre of the grandson of the prophet, Al-Husain], and
it was on Saturday and also it was at the day of Nayruz [Nayruz: ancient
persian festival announcing the beginning of spring, Iranian people still
celebrate it every year], and so all the people from all around the world
gathered together and it was in Alexandria, so when everyone gathered together,
Moses came to them while he was standing with the help of his stick and
Aaron with him, so Moses then said to the wizards: Woe unto you! Invent
not a lie against Allah, lest He extirpate you by some punishment. He who
lieth faileth miserably(TaHa:61), so each one of them said to the other:
this is not a saying of a wizard, then they said to him: we shall show
you today a magic that you never saw before, and they brought the sticks
and ropes carried by sixty camels. Then Moses said to them: Throw what
ye are going to throw! So they did and threw their sticks and ropes and
it went like if they were snakes and like mountains that filled the valley
riding each other, so he (Moses) got scared in himself, [a line comes here
I could not understand!], then God inspired to him: Fear not! Lo! thou
art the higher, Throw that which is in thy right hand! It will eat up that
which they have made. Lo! that which they have made is but a wizard's artifice,
and a wizard shall not be successful to whatever point (of skill) he may
attain(TaHa:68-69), so he threw his stick and turned to be a large black
serpent with four short but thick legs and had a tail that it used to stand
upon and could reach higher than the city walls with its head, and anything
it would strike with its tail would be broken, and its legs could break
the rocks and fill the walls of the houses with fire and his nose smoked
poisons, so then it viewed what the wizards did throw and it were like
snakes in the eyes of the pharaoh and the others, so it swallowed them
one by one and nothing left in the valley, so the people got defeated and
fell upon each other so that twenty five thousand persons died that day
because of that and the pharaoh got defeated with fear..etc - and it is
a long tale - until the narrator said: when the wizards saw what happened
they said: if it was magic it would not be hid from us, and if it was magic
then where are our sticks and ropes? Then they fell prostrating and said:
We believe in the Lord of the Worlds, The Lord of Moses and Aaron(Al-A`râf:121-122),
and there were four elders among them: Sabur, `Ârur, Hat-hat, Masfâ,
so when the wizards believed (in Moses) the pharaoh said with stubborness:
Ye put your faith in him before I give you leave. Lo! he doubtless is your
chief who taught you magic! But verily ye shall come to know. Verily I
will cut off your hands and your feet alternately, and verily I will crucify
you every one(Al-Shu`arâ':49), then they said: We choose thee not
above the clear proofs that have come unto us, and above Him Who created
us. So decree what thou wilt decree. Thou wilt end for us only this life
of the world(TaHa:72), so he cut off their hands and legs and crucified
them and he was the first to do that, so they were disbelievers in the
morning and faithful martyrs in the evening, and the pharaoh was defeated
and denied but to remain being stubborn, so Moses got back and the stick
following him protecting him like an honest dog would do to his master
and the people were looking at it until Moses went into the camp of the
Israelites and he took its head and it got back again to a stick.
They say that the meeting of the wizards with Moses and his brother
at that appointed day and it was a day of festival for them, so when it
was midday all people gathered, and the pharaoh had that day a dome that
was seventy cubits in height and it was covered with steel and when the
sun rays strike it no one would be able to look at it because of the glancing,
and when they faced each other, the wizards said to the pharaoh: we see
a man that looks into heaven and our magic did not reach the heaven, then
they said to Moses: O Moses! Either throw (first) or let us be the first
throwers? So Moses said to them: Throw what ye are going to throw! Then
they threw down their cords and their staves and said: By Pharaoh's might,
lo! we verily are the winners. Then they (cords and staves) started to
shake and ride on each other so everyone that might looked at them would
think that they are indeed snakes and all people got scared, and Moses
kept his fear inside himself and then he was called: Fear not! Lo! thou
art the higher. Throw that which is in thy right hand! It will eat up that
which they have made. Lo! that which they have made is but a wizard's artifice,
and a wizard shall not be successful to whatever point (of skill) he may
attain, so Moses then threw his staff and it melted like lead on the floor
then its head appeared and opened its mouth and put its upper jaw on the
dome of the pharaoh and then went around like a millstone and ate the cords
and staves of the wizards as if they were nothing, and people got horrified
because of this and could not hold themselves and started to run and squashed
each other so that ten thousand men and women and children were killed
because of this, then it went around the dome of the pharaoh and he (the
pharaoh) got frustrated and also Haman and so scared so that polluted their
clothes and their head went white, while Moses went with the people running
so then God called him saying: Grasp it and fear not. We shall return it
to its former state, so then Moses went back and covered his hand with
his clothes and put his hand into its mouth and it turned back into a staff
as it was, so then the wizards fell prostrating and said: We believe in
the Lord of Aaron and Moses, but the pharaoh got angry for what they did
and said to them: Ye put your faith in him before I give you leave. Lo!
he doubtless is your chief who taught you magic! But verily ye shall come
to know. Verily I will cut off your hands and your feet alternately, and
verily I will crucify you every one, and they said to him: Lo! we ardently
hope that our Lord will forgive us our sins because we are the first of
the believers..etc, and we've mentioned the story before but it is here
again for some variations in narrations, but the truth in all variations
is one as it is obvious.